In earlier years Cadiz was a famous seaport. Her sons were immemorial explorers. The presentiment of a land across the sea was theirs by intuition. Constantly they extended their expeditions, and would have extended them still further had not the Church interfered. The spirit of enterprise, checked as heretical, revived centuries later in a neighboring land. It was Portugal that it inspired. There the work of exploration and discovery was resumed. The island of Madeira was reached in 1420, the Azores annexed in 1431. But it was along the African coast that Portuguese effort was mainly directed. Tradition asserted that the entire continent had been circumnavigated centuries before by voyagers from Phœnicia; but, as no details were recorded, the adventure was regarded as something more than dubious. However, the west coast began now to be systematically explored. Nuno Tristao entered the Senegal River in 1445; a year later Diniz Dias, a fellow-navigator, sailed as far as Cape Verd. The equator was not crossed until 1471; the Congo was revealed in 1484; and in 1486 the crowning feat of all was accomplished, when Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Stormy Cape, soon to become known as the Cape of Good Hope, and opened up communication with the East by water, instead of overland or by the indirect route of the Red Sea, which necessitated the transshipment of all merchandise conveyed that way.
The expedition to the west which Columbus ultimately directed was conceived by him in 1474, and unfolded to John II., king of Portugal, by whom, however, it was rejected; whereupon Columbus dispatched his brother Bartholomew to enter into negotiations with Henry VII. of England, and after assuring himself that neither Genoa nor Venice was likely to lend him a willing ear, much less ready help, he repaired to the south of Spain in 1485.
Had Bartholomew not fallen into the hands of pirates, and so been prevented from reaching his destination for several years, it is more than probable that the credit as well as the profit of the discovery of America would have fallen at once to England, as Henry had both the means and the inclination to indulge in some such venture, provided it was not too costly, and showed any reasonable prospect of success. As it was, Christopher was left to pursue his pleadings before the Spanish Court.
It was an unfortunate time to put forward any proposals calculated to divert the wealth and strength of the kingdom beyond its own borders; for Ferdinand and Isabella were then in the very midst of the campaign which ended in the final overthrow of the Moorish dominion, in the Peninsula.
Ultimately, however, after the fall of Granada and eighteen years of waiting, his proposals were accepted by Isabella and his hopes realized. A royal edict constituted him perpetual and hereditary admiral and viceroy of any territories discovered, together with a tenth of any profits derived therefrom. With this edict and funds advanced by the receiver of ecclesiastical revenues, Columbus hastened to the port of Palos. There, two brothers by the name of Pinzon aiding, he got together a crew of a hundred and twenty men, a scratch armada of three leaky tubs—the “Santa Maria,” the “Pinta” and the “Nina”—and, on the 3d of August, 1492, weighed anchor for pastures new.
Columbus, as admiral of the fleet, commanded the “Santa Maria”; the two Pinzons, Martin Alonzo and Vicente Yanez, the “Pinta” and “Nina” respectively. The expressed object of the voyage was to convert the Grand Khan, supposed to be the great potentate of the Far East, to Christianity; and Columbus never doubted but that in due course he would arrive at Japan, or Zipangu, as it had been named by the Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, who had reached it by an overland route more than a century before, and had described its wonders, together with those of Cathay or China, through which he passed on his way. The one condition imposed was, that the squadron should not touch at any place on the African continent, claimed to be under Portuguese jurisdiction, as that would have led to immediate hostilities between the two countries.
The details of the voyage are sufficiently familiar to dispense with narration here. It will suffice to note that after seventy days the island of San Salvador, as it was then named, hove in sight; that on the 28th of October, sixteen days later, Cuba was discovered, and that on the 6th of December Hayti was reached.
Several circumstances then made it advisable for Columbus to return to Spain without further delay. He had seen enough to be convinced that a much larger force than he had under his command would be necessary to make the subjugation of these newly acquired territories effective; news of the discovery might reach Europe before him, and be taken advantage of by some other sovereign than the one to whom he was devoted; and he had now sufficient treasure of various kinds to convince the most skeptical of the complete success of his enterprise. After constructing a small fort, and leaving a portion of the crew, at their own desire, to garrison it until he should return, he set sail for home with the “Nina” on the 4th of January, 1493.
Reaching Palos on the 13th of March, Columbus was immediately summoned to Barcelona, where Ferdinand and Isabella were then domiciled, made a triumphal entry into the city, and, on his arrival at the royal residence, was welcomed by the king and queen in person, who commanded him to be seated by their side, while he related the account of his adventures.
Meanwhile the report of the discovery had spread. Portugal sought to take advantage of it through the theory that all heathen countries were in the gift of the Pope, which gift a Bull had already confirmed. But, Spain protesting, a subsequent Bull confirmed the Portuguese in their existing possessions, and granted them all territory that should be discovered east of a line drawn from north to south, one hundred leagues west of the Azores, while the Spaniards were to enjoy exclusive dominion over everything west of it.